When I first found out I was pregnant, one of the things that really kept me going through all of this was the name game I had come up. The possibilities were endless and I wanted my son to have a cool, catchy name that also carried a powerful meaning that would sort of help him out in life. It was a family tradition, of sorts, even though I was probably no longer part of said family. Not really. But you could take the person out of the family but not the family out of the person. Or some such paraphrased shit like that.

There were tons of names to chose from, some related to important and powerful historical figures, while other names carried connotations from myths and legends. The name was also dependant on when exactly my child would be born, what with the numerological and astrological significance and all that.

Anyways. I had this list that summed up some of the best names I had come across. Among them were names such as Alexander. After Alexander the Great. It was a beautiful boy's name, popular and dignified, after one of the greatest conquerors in human history. From the A's I also had Anthony, after Mark Anthony, Allan, after Allan Rickman, Anders, after Anders from Dragon Age and a few others.

The B list was a bit short, It had on it Bartholomew, after Barry Allen, who was also known as The Flash. I had Bruce, after Bruce Banner AND Bruce Wayne. And, lastly, I had Bryce, after Bryce Cousland from Dragon Age.

Among other names I had ones such as Mark (again after Mark Anthony), I had Garrus (after Garrus Vakarian, bless his fictional soul), I had James ( after a number of Jameses that I know, both fictional and real, all of which were awesome people).

In the end, however, my baby boy was born on the 17th of July and he got the honors of having two first names, for the sheer fact I couldn't make up my mind about which one I liked the best. Also, both names belonged to a great fictional character. So, on the 17th of July I had given birth to my son, Sirius Orion Dale. In hindsight, perhaps I should've taken up the last name Black instead of Dale. Too late for that now, I think.

Remus and Regulus were also on the list.

In lieu of this exposition to my baby's name, it was impossible to not sympathise with my situation. I mean, my poor baby Orion was reduced to Oreo. I think my self-esteem is in shambles, thanks to a 15 year old whelp.

#

"Oreo, Oreo, Ori, Ori, Oreo" Miko chanted in a sing song voice to my son.

I cringed from the horrible butchering of my Light of Light's name. He was soon to start talking and while having another talkative person around him to help him develop his vocabulary was a good thing, having Miko Nakadai of all people being that person was definitely NOT a good thing. I mean, what if my baby believes his name is OREO of all things!?

I'm mortified.

My baby is giggling in Miko's arms while I prepare breakfast. We came home really late last night. Thankfully, it was a Saturday, so the plan right now was to have a hearty breakfast and for me to drop off Ori – dammit, Orion – to Sharona's again and then head off to the School's gym. We had tons of work to do.

What? I know it's Miko's detention but I am not about to leave her figure out on her own how to fix all of this. It was a cruel detention in the first place. Unlike myself, Miko was fragile looking and thin. I had muscle mass on me, hell I generally had mass on me that I still couldn't completely get rid of after giving birth to Ori. Dammit! Orion! It wasn't like looking like a photo model was a goal of upmost importance to me. I had this belly thing going on that annoyed me for the most part, but otherwise I was ok with myself, I think. I had too much to do at the moment to focus on my weight.

Anyways, I had experience with repainting rooms and I knew a thing or two about how to do that on my own, having had gone through similar escapades to Miko's only in my case I didn't write graffitti all over the school gym and I didn't do it on purpose but rather it was an accident. Long story short, I was making tomato sauce and forgot to put the lid on the damn blender.

I wasn't looking forward to losing my weekend on Miko, but someone had to make sure she owned up to her shenanigans and that she was ok. And Miko may be annoying most of the times, but she was just like me, insecure and scared and God only knows what else. I wanted to show her that she wasn't alone and that all she had to do was reach out and I'd take her hand. And all of that on her own terms. I didn't want to pressure her or corner her. She needed this freedom as much as I had needed mine.

#

I ended up paying for the additional supplies we needed. It was not pleasant feeling a bit ripped off about it. I hoped that my investment in this bratty girl would pay off. I'd hate to see so much potential go down the drain. People like her and I, we have this spark inside us, you see. I've labeled it the Spark of Ingenuity. People like us could be the Promethei of Tomorrow, holding out the Torch of Enlightment – Ok.I am getting ahead of myself. Maybe. has got the spunk. She's got the drive. But she doesn't have the direction and, by God, is she still in that awkward phase where you don't know what exactly to do with yourself and the world is just too damn big for you to handle.

I remember that feeling. In fact, I still feel like that. Sometimes I think that I've cheated this time a wee bit too much. I literally jumped from that awkward phase straight into the orderly life of an adult with a well paying, orderly job. And suddenly the world felt too small. And it was lonely. It was lacking. There had to be more to the world than just this! Well, there was more to the world. But now I managed to limit myself to what I have at this point in time. And, later on, when Orion is old enough to take the big steps on his own, what will I be left with? Will I have the willpower to continue where I left off or will I just let go and enjoy the rest of my life in a reasonably comfortable boredom?

Questions like these haunted me all the time and I feel as if recently they've been pulling a wee bit too hard on me. I feel insecure about the future. It's smokey, like the smoke left behind a match when you snuff out the flame. Beyond that smoke, I see darkness. And in that darkness lay the promises of nothing. But there is also darkness in me and it says otherwise.

I chip away at the ruined coat of Graffitti'd paint with renewed gusto. For now I will bide my time and settle into this life that I've created for myself. There will be a time when I will have to raise my fist but that time is not now. And suddenly, just like that, I feel a bit better.

Time tick-ticks away. But with it, so do my fears.

#

I need to get a dog. Like, this big ass pooch that can and will rip apart interlopers of all kinds. Including Martha Barnaby. Especially Martha Barnaby. I found her drinking coffee when I got home with my baby boy on my hip, late Sunday afternoon. Glasses or no glasses, she's lucky I hadn't punched her in the face then and there.

#

Turns out I had forgotten the keys on my door when I went out in the morning. Perhaps Martha isn't as bad as I'd think her to be. Hey, I may be quirky, but I'd never be as lame quirky as Martha Barnaby. We talked about the shard for a little while and she headed out. Believe it or not, she was having a date. She said something about pampering herself but even with my usually perceptive eyes, I could not see a difference for the life of me. Maybe she wiped her glasses? Aunt Petunia has more sense of style and beauty that her. Not that I'd ever say it to her face. She's sorta nice, although in a very awkward and annoying way.

#

This monday I had to do an introduction course to Thermodynamics to the class. So, naturally, the class was bored out of their minds while I tried my best not to be bored with them. Hey, Thermodynamics are fun only when applied, not when they were written on the bloody whiteboard. I opened up one of the green markers and discreetly checked its label. Good. It aint one of those permanent ones. Miko's really been working on her shenanigans. I need to get that girl a hobby. Usually I am not against pranks but I need my family time and, since I am the newbie Teacher, I get all the scrub over-time work. It sucks.

Since it was a Monday, my mood was already on the low side, considering the only rest I got on the weekend was actually some sleep. The majority of my class was also half asleep, which left my lecture feel even more boring than usual. Hell, even that Darby kid, the one I told you about, whose father got killed by that Mr. Burns teacher? Even Jack was distracted. I decided to call him out on his uncharacteristic behavior.

"Eyes up front, Mr. Darby." I ordered and he kind of got startled but his eyes were on me and my lecture again. He looked decidedly chasticed.

I was satisfied at first, but then he continued to be distracted throughout the whole lecture I was giving. I didn't bother correcting his behavior again. I wanted to know what was bothering him. As the school bell rang and the students piled out. The entire time he stole glances through the window. As the last student piled out I moved to Darby's now vacant spot and looked out the window as well. There was nothing out of the ordinary, at least at a first glance. Well, that's one mistery that won't solve itself. I pursed my lips, displeased with the mundane turn of events and set off to the teacher's room. I guess if Darby continued to act like that, then there was something and time would show what that something was. Still, there was this gut feeling of mine that had me really irritated. It was one of those things that told you something was really, really amiss but you just couldn't grasp what. My paranoia was going highwire by the time I sat down on my chair with a nice hot cup of tea. I would keep an eye on him, there was nothing more I could do. And that was that.

#

"Okay, I have good news and bad news." I told Steven and Martha as I stood up."Should I start with the good news or the bad news?"

Steven and Martha shared a look.

"Fine, be that way." I huffed dramatically." The good news is we will have a working

vacuum chamber. The bad news is I have to use the parts of all three broken ones to make a single working one. Also, why the hell does an ordinary high school in the middle of nowhere have a blast furnace?"

#

Sometimes when you ask weird questions you actually get answers. Even if said answers also happen to be weird. But thats only an occasional occurence. The Blast Furnace was a prototype for a State School Science Fair from 1976. It was all solid worksmanship down to the last bolt. It was miniature compared to what blast furnaces should be in this day and age, but that did not mean it was not functional. I eyed it appreciatively. Now I want one, I'd probably annex it for a school project or something and then "forget" to return it. This baby was too good a find to be left alone like this.

#

Finally, our little research was going smoothly. On Tuesday we discovered that when applying pressure to the strange crystal shard, it glowed. Upon further experimentation, we concluded that the intensity of the glow corresponded to the force with which the surface of the shard was pressed. After much goofing around, on Wednesday, we found out that the shard was photosensitive. By the end of the week we did pretty much every test we could think of in our little impromptu DIY lab. The only thing we hadn't tested the shard with, was actual radiation. You know, the alpha, beta and gamma and the like?

We came up with a solution on how to test at least some radiation on the shard. Well, I came up with the idea but we are a team and I prefer to refer to any discovery as a such made my the team, not by a single person. It was a pretty good and practical idea. So I just contacted the local hospital and arranged some use of their radiography machine (that's the machine that makes X-rays). The results were as predicted. Yet again the shard had soaked up the X-rays thus producing perhaps the most intense light we've seen from it to date.

By the start of the next week we sort of had this small report on all the experiments we did on the shard. We kept it inside a small lead box I ordered off the internet in case it exploded from overexposure. We were almost ready to present our findings for a scientific conference in Seattle in three months from now. We were hoping that we'd get some funding for further studying the shard.

That friday I had another exceptionally long detention with the Nakadai girl. I treated her to pizza and popcorn and Gladiator starring Russel Crow. I always watched Gladiator on Fridays whenever I had the time. Sometimes I watched 300 or some other Ancient themed movie with lots of honorable warriors in it. But it was mostly Gladiator. There was something nostalgic about rewatching it and having Miko here with me, it was almost as if the good old days were back. I miss my friends.

The pizza was extra large, meat lover special. That was some next level shit right there. I should order take out more often, it really saves me time from cooking at dinner, time that I could spend with my little Ori- dammit! Orion!

#

"I've always wondered. You don't seem like teacher material-"

"Oh?" I made an overly exagerated face at which Steven laughed.

"Not that you aren't good at what you do. You are the friggin Warden, after all."

I nearly jolted when he called me a Warden. For some reason I thought he was talking about Dragon Age's Grey wardens. I used to be an avid gamer and, well, my paranoia sort of tried getting the better of me. Instead of panicking, I took a slow, deep breath and calmly turned to him.

"That's a new one. Since when have I become this... Warden?"

"Since you started handling the Nakadai Brat on a regular basis."

I promptly gave him the stink eye.

"That's because you people assign me to her all the time. Seriously. I have a young baby boy and I need to spend some time with him before he grows up."

Steven raised his hands in mock defense, with a smile on his face that made me skip a beat. He was truly a handsome man. He was tall and well toned and he carried himself with a certain air, a strong presence. Probably something from his military days. True, he was old enough to be my father and married to boot, but right now that was as far away from my still highly hormonal and teenage mind.

I crossed my arms over my chest and raised an eyebrow, further continuing this camaderie that was going on between us.

I'd be brutally honest, folks. If he decided in this very moment to lift my skirt, rip my panties off and fuck me, I wouldn't mind. Not one bit. And damn it all into Oblivion, despite everything that I made myself believe, not needing the comfort of having a man in my life was not one of them.

"You wanted to ask me something, Steve." I pointedly told him, forcing myself to ignore my thoughts.

"I just don't get it how a young bright thing like yourself is simply a teacher."

I took a breath to answer. But he raised a hand and continued talking.

"I don't mean it that it's a bad thing, but I don't see you as the calm, domestic type. You'd look more at home in some big secret science facility or aboard a NASA Space Ship, leading a mission to Mars. You strike me as one for adventure."

In the end I just chuckled and shook my head. His words kind of haunted me the whole day, even through happened in the afternoon. Maybe especially because of that. He was right of course. I was looking for that life-changing adventure. There was this longing in me that still grieved for those bygone days of fun and excitement that now I associated with what was supposed to be my rather short-lived childhood.

#

Miko was late for her detention. By five whole minutes. That girl knows my policy. If you are late by any amount of time, then you stay additionally for that amount of time. Thus, she tries not to be late. Every second counts.

I looked out the window. Miko was leaving the school grounds.

"That little bitch." I hissed out angrily and pursed my lips. I abruptly got up and ran after her. If I am not allowed to get out of this detention then neither is she! She is getting an earful now, that's for certain. And maybe diaper changing duty if I am feeling particularly petty and vindictive. She's getting more efficient and better and changing diapers, though, so I don't think that threat would hold out for much longer.

"Miko Nakadai, if you think you can just skip off and-"

"Dude! Just go with!"